Detailed Description

The QXmlQuery class performs XQueries on XML data, or on non-XML data modeled to look like XML.

The QXmlQuery class compiles and executes queries written in the XQuery language. QXmlQuery is typically used to query XML data, but it can also query non-XML data that has been modeled to look like XML.

Using QXmlQuery to query non-XML data requires writing a subclass of QAbstractXmlNodeModel to use as a replacement for the built-in XML data model. The custom data model will be able to traverse the non-XML data as required by the QAbstractXmlNodeModel interface. An instance of this custom data model then becomes the delegate used by the query engine to traverse the non-XML data. For an example of how to use QXmlQuery to query non-XML data, see the documentation for QAbstractXmlNodeModel.

Running XQueries

To run a query set up with QXmlQuery, call one of the evaluation functions.

evaluateTo(QAbstractXmlReceiver *) is called with a pointer to an XML receiver, which receives the query results as a sequence of callbacks. The receiver callback class is like the callback class used for translating the output of a SAX parser. QXmlSerializer, for example, is a receiver callback class for translating the sequence of callbacks for output as unformatted XML text.

evaluateTo(QXmlResultItems *) is called with a pointer to an iterator for an empty sequence of query result items. The Java-like iterator allows the query results to be accessed sequentially.

Binding A Query To A Starting Node

When a query is run on XML data, as in the snippet above, the doc() function returns the node in the built-in data model where the query evaluation will begin. But when a query is run on a custom node model containing non-XML data, one of the bindVariable() functions must be called to bind a variable name to a starting node in the custom model. A $variable reference is used in the XQuery text to access the starting node in the custom model. It is not necessary to declare the variable name external in the query. See the example in the documentation for QAbstractXmlNodeModel.

Reentrancy and Thread-Safety

QXmlQuery is reentrant but not thread-safe. It is safe to use the QxmlQuery copy constructor to create a copy of a query and run the same query multiple times. Behind the scenes, QXmlQuery will reuse resources such as opened files and compiled queries to the extent possible. But it is not safe to use the same instance of QXmlQuery in multiple threads.

Error Handling

Errors can occur during query evaluation. Examples include type errors and file loading errors. When an error occurs:

Resource Management

When a query runs, it parses documents, allocating internal data structures to hold them, and it may load other resources over the network. It reuses these allocated resources when possible, to avoid having to reload and reparse them.

When setQuery() is called, the query text is compiled into an internal data structure and optimized. The optimized form can then be reused for multiple evaluations of the query. Since the compile-and-optimize process can be expensive, repeating it for the same query should be avoided by using a separate instance of QXmlQuery for each query text.

Once a document has been parsed, its internal representation is maintained in the QXmlQuery instance and shared among multiple QXmlQuery instances.

Event Handling

When QXmlQuery accesses resources (e.g., calling fn:doc() to load a file, or accessing a device via a bound variable), the event loop is used, which means events will be processed. To avoid processing events when QXmlQuery accesses resources, create your QXmlQuery instance in a separate thread.

Member Type Documentation

enum QXmlQuery::QueryLanguage

XSLT 2.0 The selector, the restricted XPath pattern found in W3C XML Schema 1.1 for uniqueness contraints. Apart from restricting the syntax, the type check stage for the expression assumes a sequence of nodes to be the focus. The field, the restricted XPath pattern found in W3C XML Schema 1.1 for uniqueness contraints. Apart from restricting the syntax, the type check stage for the expression assumes a sequence of nodes to be the focus. Signifies XPath 2.0. Has no effect in the public API, it's used internally. As With XmlSchema11IdentityConstraintSelector and XmlSchema11IdentityConstraintField, the type check stage for the expression assumes a sequence of nodes to be the focus.

All strings processed by the query must be valid XQuery strings, which means they must contain only XML 1.0 characters. However, this requirement is not checked. If the query processes an invalid string, the behavior is undefined.

Binds the variable name to the device so that $name can be used from within the query to refer to the device. The QIODevicedevice is exposed to the query as a URI of type xs:anyURI, which can be passed to the fn:doc() function to be read. E.g., this function can be used to pass an XML document in memory to fn:doc.

name must not be null. name.isNull() must return false. If name has already been bound, its previous binding will be overridden. The URI that name evaluates to is arbitrary and may change.

If the type of the variable binding changes (e.g., if a previous binding by the same name was a QVariant, or if there was no previous binding), isValid() will return false, and recompilation of the query text is required. To recompile the query, call setQuery(). For this reason, bindVariable() should be called before setQuery(), if possible.

Starts the evaluation and makes it available in result. If result is null, the behavior is undefined. The evaluation takes place incrementally (lazy evaluation), as the caller uses QXmlResultItems::next() to get the next result.

Attempts to evaluate the query and returns the results in the targetstring list.

If the query is valid and the evaluation succeeds, true is returned. Otherwise, false is returned and the contents of target are undefined.

The query must evaluate to a sequence of xs:string values. If the query does not evaluate to a sequence of strings, the values can often be converted by adding a call to string() at the end of the XQuery.

Returns the name of the XSL-T stylesheet template that the processor will call first when running an XSL-T stylesheet. This function only applies when using QXmlQuery to process XSL-T stylesheets. By default, no initial template is set. In that case, a default constructed QXmlName is returned.

Sets the focus to item. The focus is the set of items that the context item expression and path expressions navigate from. For example, in the expression p/span, the element that p evaluates to is the focus for the following expression, span.

The focus can be accessed using the context item expression, i.e., dot (".").

By default, the focus is not set and is undefined. It will therefore result in a dynamic error, XPDY0002, if the focus is attempted to be accessed. The focus must be set before the query is set with setQuery().

Sets the focus to be the document located at documentURI and returns true. If documentURI cannot be loaded, false is returned. It is undefined at what time the document may be loaded. When loading the document, the message handler and URI resolver set on this QXmlQuery are used.

If documentURI is empty or is not a valid URI, the behavior of this function is undefined.

Sets the focus to be the document read from the QIODevice and returns true. If document cannot be loaded, false is returned.

QXmlQuery does not take ownership of document. The user guarantees that a document is available from the document device and that the document is not empty. The device must be opened in at least read-only mode. document must stay in scope as long as the current query is active.

Sets the name of the initial template. The initial template is the one the processor calls first, instead of attempting to match a template to the context node (if any). If an initial template is not set, the standard order of template invocation will be used.

This function only applies when using QXmlQuery to process XSL-T stylesheets. The name becomes part of the compiled stylesheet. Therefore, this function must be called before calling setQuery().

If the stylesheet has no template named name, the processor will use the standard order of template invocation.

Sets the name of the initial template to localName, which must be a valid local name. The initial template is the one the processor calls first, instead of attempting to match a template to the context node (if any). If an initial template is not set, the standard order of template invocation will be used.

This function only applies when using QXmlQuery to process XSL-T stylesheets. The name becomes part of the compiled stylesheet. Therefore, this function must be called before calling setQuery().

If localName is not a valid local name, the effect is undefined. If the stylesheet has no template named localName, the processor will use the standard order of template invocation.

documentURI represents the query obtained from the sourceCode device. It is the base URI of the static context, as defined in the XQuery language. It is used internally to resolve relative URIs that appear in the query, and for message reporting. documentURI can be empty. If it is empty, the application file path is used. If it is not empty, it may be either relative or absolute. If it is relative, it is resolved itself against the application file path before it is used. If documentURI is neither a valid URI nor empty, the result is undefined.

If the query contains a static error (e.g. syntax error), an error message is sent to the messageHandler(), and isValid() will return false.

Variables must be bound before setQuery() is called.

The encoding of the XQuery in sourceCode is detected internally using the rules for setting and detecting encoding of XQuery files, which are explained in the XQuery language.

If sourceCode is null or not readable, or if documentURI is not a valid URI, behavior is undefined.

The behavior and requirements of this function are the same as for setQuery(QIODevice*, const QUrl&), after the XQuery has been read from the IO device into a string. Because sourceCode is already a Unicode string, detection of its encoding is unnecessary.

Sets this QXmlQuery to the XQuery read from the queryURI. Use isValid() after calling this function. If an error occurred reading queryURI, e.g., the query does not exist, cannot be read, or is invalid, isValid() will return false.

The supported URI schemes are the same as those in the XQuery function fn:doc, except that queryURI can be the object of a variable binding.

baseURI is the Base URI of the static context, as defined in the XQuery language. It is used internally to resolve relative URIs that appear in the query, and for message reporting. If baseURI is empty, queryURI is used. Otherwise, baseURI is used, and it is resolved against the application file path if it is relative.

If queryURI is empty or invalid, or if baseURI is invalid, the behavior of this function is undefined.

Returns the query's URI resolver. If no URI resolver has been set, Qt XML Patterns will use the URIs in queries as they are.

The URI resolver provides a level of abstraction, or polymorphic URIs. A resolver can rewrite logical URIs to physical ones, or it can translate obsolete or invalid URIs to valid ones.

Qt XML Patterns calls the URI resolver for all URIs it encounters, except for namespaces. Specifically, all builtin functions that deal with URIs (fn:doc(), and fn:doc-available()).

In the case of fn:doc(), the absolute URI is the base URI in the static context (which most likely is the location of the query). Rather than use the URI the user specified, the return value of QAbstractUriResolver::resolve() will be used.